SHOULD Be Eating Crow But Aren’t *Weekend Open Thread* *UPDATED*

I realize that could be a very, very long list, so I will limit this to just a few people or agencies that should be eating crow, but instead continue on their merry, arrogant, smug way.

First up is the IRS and Lois Lerner. Now, I know that could be volumes with Lerner, not to mention her cohorts, and the acting director, John Koskinen. But again, to keep this manageable, I would like to highlight yet another activity in which she was engaged while in the employ of the IRS, and for which she has had NO comeuppance whatsoever.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly obtained donor lists from nonprofit groups as part of a “secret research project” being run by Lois Lerner and other officials.

IRS official David Fish revealed the “secret research project” in a June 27, 2012 email to Lerner’s direct subordinate Holly Paz, according to emails released Thursday by the nonprofit group Judicial Watch, which obtained the emails in a pending Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

“Joseph Urban [IRS Technical Advisor, Tax Exempt and Government Entities] had actually started a secret research project on whether we could, consistent with 6104, argue that [REDACTED],” Fish wrote.

“Joe was quite agitated yesterday when I told him what we were doing. (He was involved when the initial question was raised, but we didn’t continue reading him in),” Fish continued. “At one point he started saying that this was a decision for Steve Miller–I told him we were already doing it, and that I didn’t know whether Lois had already talked to Nikole [Flax, former IRS Chief of Staff to IRS Commissioner Steve Miller] about this. Would not be surprised if he already started working on Lois.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Well, doesn’t THIS beg a lot of questions?? “Secret research projects” by the woman who targeted not just conservative groups, but religious groups too. Just WHAT was the purpose of these secret projects??

Oh, and did you catch the “improperly obtained” portion of the sentence? In other words, once again, the IRS engaged in wrong doing, not just by Lerner, but others as well. Rather than eat some crow whenever these revelations come out, their arrogance continues unabated.

The IRS told lawmakers Friday that five staffers connected to the agency’s Tea Party controversy besides Lois Lerner probably lost emails due to computer problems.

Those five staffers include officials key to the various investigations into the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups – including Judith Kindell, who was a senior adviser to Lerner, the former agency official at the center of the controversy. […](Click here to read the rest.)

Naturally, the IRS went on to say that this was a total fluke, and there was nothing to see here, move along, move along…

Here’s the thing I don’t get – why is this phrased as a REPUBLICAN issue? This is an AMERICAN issue. Rather than the excuses, the smugness, the avoiding of responsibility, these people, all of them, from Koskinen on down, should be looking at a host of recipes for the crow they should be eating.

[…] In 2012, Romney called it “troubling” and “alarming” that Barack Obama had essentially appeased the Russian bear by offering concessions like the withdrawal of interceptor missile and radar installations in Eastern Europe without reciprocity from Moscow. He said that Russia’s actions have made that nation “without question, our number one geopolitical foe.”

This prompted a flood of scorn and mockery from a raft of self-assured critics. But by 2014, after Russia had frustrated America’s ambition to contain the Syrian civil war, invaded neighboring Ukraine, and unilaterally annexed a portion of that nation’s territory into Russia proper, nearly all of Romney’s self-respecting critics were forced to concede that he had a point.

In that campaign and earlier, Romney warned that the Islamist goal was the establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate state which would counter the West and add a grave new military dimension to the ideological struggle against jihadism.

“It’s this century’s nightmare, jihadism – violent, radical Islamic fundamentalism,” Romney said in 2007. “Their goal is to unite the world under a single jihadist caliphate.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Uh, yeah, I think all those folks who “mocked” Romney need to sit down to a big heaping bowl full of crow. Turns out Romney was most definitely right, and Obama, et. al, were wrong, wrong, wrong.

And the last one up is, once again, State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Marie Harf. Harf was asked about the claims made by the three security men who fought in Benghazi as documented in Bret Baier’s, “13 Hours.” This is what Ms. Harf had to say when asked about their claims in the Friday briefing:

[…] I’m saying that the notion that there was evidence of stand down order given by anybody, including the CIA chief on the ground in Benghazi, is false. There’s no evidence to back it up, and when we make claims, I think it behooves all of us to have evidence there. And the notion that people on the ground didn’t want to do everything to help, but do it in a responsible and safe way – that’s what happened that night, and trying to find evidence otherwise when there isn’t any is just irresponsible. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

In other words, this woman is calling these three men liars. WOW. How dare she, from the safety of her podium, call these men who were literally in a gun battle for their lives, and the lives of the five Americans killed, liars? Ye that is precisely what she did.If anyone should have to eat some major league crow, it is this group.

Yeah, I’d say this is just the tip of the iceberg of those who could, and should, have to eat some crow. This is your Weekend Open Thread, so feel free to add those you think should be on this list, too. Oh, and fun stories or videos, if you wish!

UPDATE: Check out this revelation from Greta van Susteren about the Obama White House and what they tried to do regarding reporting on Benghazi:

My spouse, who is not very politically interested, although he never fails to vote, was listening to “13 Hours At Benghazi” as I re-watched it last night. He turned off the computer and came and watched the rest of it with me. When it was over he simply said, who would ever take any lying POS politican or politician’s spokesperson over these 3 men.

Lou laughed, as I did, at the look on Brett Baier’s face when Oz was talking about flopping his hand around and said, “hey check this out”. That alone tells you what kind of men these are and how a piece of scum like Marie Harf, who all but called them liars isn’t fit to breathe the same air.

Lou is a very smart man (which we already knew since he chose you!). But yes – who – WHO – can listen to these men and think for one nanosecond that Obama and Clinton were telling the truth abt what happened? Who cannot see that they were engaged in nothing more than election-year politics at the expense of American lives, including our Ambassador?

Yeah, Harf is a piece of work. But even those reports that came out are appalling. I was glad Bret asked them abt those and their response was spot on. They were there.

Those politicians sitting in their cushy offices, making deals, crafting politically expedient responses, were not.

That was pretty funny when Oz did that. It DOES speak to just what kind of men they are. As did Tig’s breaking down and crying (makes me tear up to even think abt it), thinking abt these men who died, all because they were told to stand down.

A catchy country tune penned by a pair of U.S. soldiers has started to sweep the Internet, earning more than 120,000 shares on Facebook since the end of August.

Lucien Patten and Lane Goff formed the band Patten and Goff on base at Fort Eustis in Virginia in late August and wrote their first song, “Proud of Who I Am,” shortly thereafter. A video of the song was posted to Facebook by a fellow soldier and has since gone viral.

“I’m just a backwoods country boy, proud of who I am,” the song starts. “Yes sir, I knew exactly what I was doing when I swore to Uncle Sam.”

“If you don’t like the way I’m living, just remember that it’s for you. I’m a redneck camo-wearing son-of-a-gun for the red, white, and blue.”

The viral video show Right This Minute called the song “real country” and “inspiring.”

The pride in country and commitment to duty that oozes from every twang-tinged word has set the Internet ablaze.

That is so cool – thanks for the background info, Marge! I already put the video up on Facebook, I liked it so much (with a h/t to a friend). Good for them – I hope they continue to make awesome music together!

I guess it should come as no surprise that we would treat/mistreat our canine vets when we treat our human vets so abysmally.

Sometimes it’s hard to be proud to be an American – or at least proud of the American Government. It would be nice if they cared at least half as much for our vets, human and canine, as they do for the illegals invading our country.

No doubt in my mind either. But I sure hope they don’t manage to talk him into running again. I think that would be hard to do when Ann is, by all accounts very much against it. He would not be the man I believe him to be if he put her through all that b.s. again.

Oh, yeah – if Ann doesn’t want him to run, he should not. Her health, and their lives together, matter most.

Speaking of – I saw her ice bucket challenge recently. She was so funny, and just so cute. Good heavens, what a great First Lady she would have made. Warm, compassionate, funny, and no stranger to adversity with the major health issues she has had to face.

Why do they even let her say anything in public as stupid as she is? Harvard-educated First Lady Michelle Obama reminded attendees of a naturalization ceremony Wednesday that the Founding Fathers weren’t born in America. The ceremony for 50 new U.S. citizens was held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. She said during her speech, referring to the Declaration of Independence, “It’s amazing that just a few feet from here where I’m standing are the signatures of the 56 Founders who put their names on a Declaration that changed the course of history, and like the 50 of you, none of them were born American they became American.”

Did she actually mean that those who signed the Declaration of Independence and participated in the drafting of the Constitution were not born in America?

Benjamin Franklin was born in Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison were born in Virginia. John Adams was born in Massachusetts.

Surely she must know this. But then again, maybe not. After all, she is a Harvard graduate.

I really do not trust Snopes.com but there is so much loathing for both the Obamas that there are those who “twist” the words a bit. Funny how that works against them just as they so often “twist” the words of others for their own gain.

The problem with this is that Michelle Obama, in her arrogance, is convinced that all she has to do is give a speech, no matter how convoluted and the world will cheer her brilliance. Especially since she is more popular than her spouse. (First ladies usually are when his poll numbers begin to drop. Laura Bush, if I remember correctly was way more popular than GeeDubya during his second term.)

For all the hype about what great speechifiers the Obama couple is they often are far less than clear when they speak. Again, I ascribe that to arrogance. That and the media cheering section that is still trying to convince us of their “brilliance”.

For the record I don’t think, like the writer of this piece that Michelle Obama is stupid. She’s ignorant which is an entirely different thing.

Stupidity cannot be cured. It is a lifelong affliction. Ignorance is a condition often confused with stupidity because the ignorant person is so arrogant that they don’t know they are ignorant.

Often they are surrounded by people too frightened to tell them when they are wrong. Thus they come across as stupid when they are only ignorant. I hope that clears things up because now I am hopelessly confused.